20th Hussars In The Great War

When war broke out, the 20th Hussars were in Colchester, where they had been since 1911. They were one of the three regiments making up the 5th Cavalry Brigade commanded by Brig-Gen Sir Philip Chetwode, who rose to the command of XX Corps, and after the war became C-in-C India and Field Marshal. The regiment arrived in France on 18th August (‘A' Squadron arrived the previous day). The Cavalry Division was formed on mobilization but the 5th Cavalry Brigade was an independent brigade until transferred to the newly formed 2nd Cavalry Division in September 1914. The regiment served on the Western Front for the rest of the war, remaining in 5th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division. The regiment was in it right from the start - Mons and the Retreat, the Marne and the Aisne and all the way through to the armistice. Twenty-four Battle Honours were awarded and the dead numbered 11 officers and 205 other ranks (Soldiers Died). This history, published privately by the author, a regular officer who served in the regiment during the war, is a simple, straightforward and easily read narrative in which individuals are named and officer and sometimes other rank casualties are mentioned as they occur. The story is quite obviously intended for regimental readers, who will readily identify with some of the incidents described. Thus we read how Lieut Sparrow shot a ‘Hun cyclist' with his revolver; how Corporal Goring killed two Uhlans and captured their lances; and how Lieut Goodhart, closely pursued by an ‘ugly Hun’ with a lance, tried to shoot him with his revolver, only to discover he had forgotten to load it. Fortunately for him his polo pony had the legs of the German horse (or was more agile) and Goodhart lived to fight another day. No doubt it cost him drinks all round. This happened on 22nd August 1914, the day before Mons, so the regiment was one of the first in action. Officer casualties, and sometimes senior NCO are mentioned as they occur, with the circumstances; from time to time the list of officers present for duty are given. But there is no roll of honour nor lists of honours and awards, and no index.

In his foreword to this book, Winston Churchill rightly calls it a ‘plain yet careful record of the fortunes and services of the 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars in the Great War (which) deserves and will repay attentive study from those to whom the history of the regiments of the British Army is of vivid interest'. The 4th Queen’s Own were one of the Army’s elite cavalry regiments which fulfilled their traditional role in the open warfare which characterised the campaigns in 1914 and 1918 at the beginning and end of the Great War. In between, of course, came the static horrors of trench warfare, when, as Churchill tactfully says: ‘the fond hopes which cavalry Generals and cavalry soldiers cherished of a great eruption of cavalry through the German lines as the culmination of a decisive battle never materialised’. Nevertheless, the 4th took part in the retreat from Mons in 1914; the first and second battle of Ypres - in which they experienced the first German poison gas attack - and the battles of Loos, the Somme and Arras. In 1918 they saw action in both the great German spring offensives and the victorious allied counter-attacks that summer and autumn. Illustrated with maps, photographs and appendices containing rolls of honour, decorations, lists of officers etc. this is a complete unit history for those interested in cavalry regiments in the Great War.

"The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War" by H. Mortimer Durand. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson's Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 was first published by the Department of National Defence in 1962 as the official history of the Canadian Army’s involvement in the First World War. Immediately after the war ended Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid made a first attempt to write an official history of the war, but the ill-fated project produced only the first of an anticipated eight volumes. Decades later, G.W.L. Nicholson - already the author of an official history of the Second World War - was commissioned to write a new official history of the First. Illustrated with numerous photographs and full-colour maps, Nicholson’s text offers an authoritative account of the war effort, while also discussing politics on the home front, including debates around conscription in 1917. With a new critical introduction by Mark Osborne Humphries that traces the development of Nicholson’s text and analyzes its legacy, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 is an essential resource for both professional historians and military history enthusiasts.

In the seventh, and second last, volume in t his historical work, Lord Anglesey shows how superior the Br itish cavalry was compared to those of the French and German s. He concentrates on the first five months of the War. '

These three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men British, French, Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever afterwards.At the end of October 1914 an increasingly desperate Falkenhayn, aware that his offensive in Flanders had stalled, decided to make one final effort to break through the Allied lines south of Ypres. Pulling together a large strike force, the so-called Army Group Fabeck, he launched a violent offensive designed to capture the Messines Ridge and to use this dominating terrain as a springboard for a further advance. Inadequately resourced, assembled in a rush, this thrust was soon in trouble. Confused fighting in the wooded areas to the south of the Menin Road slowed the advance and initial attempts to gain a foothold on the ridge failed. A supreme effort by the men of the 26th Infantry Division ultimately brought about the capture of the town of Messines and similar heroics by the Bavarian 6th Reserve Division led to the fall of Wytschaete, but it was all in vain. Yet again a valiant Allied defence had buckled, but not broken.

Windermere and Grasmere in the Great War is an expert account of these Lake District town's fascinating contributions to the Great War effort from the outbreak of war in 1914, to the long-awaited Allied victory in 1918. The book is designed to be accessible to all, and for this reason it includes the history of the South Lakes area of Cumbria, where the scarcity of visitors was felt during the Great War. Interesting stories include Lake Windermeres setting as a watery runway, rumors that a German airship was operating from a secret base near Grasmere, the double life of Arthur Ransome, and Cumberland Wrestlings postwar boom. The book also takes a detailed look at the graduates of the Lakes Flying Company, the Hardistys, VAD nurse Nellie Taylor, the Baisbrowns, the boatmen who sewed bags for sand, the gunpowder carts, Beatrix Potters opinions, conscientious objectors, landowners and gentry, Cobby the horse, railwaymen, and prisoner of war Frederick Mallinson. It acts as a reference guide to local war memorials, and a chronological guide to Belgian refugees in south Lakeland whose homes included Ellerthwaite Lodge, Windermere, Calgarth Park auxiliary hospital, Troutbeck Bridge, and the village of Finsthwaite. St Martins next to the Old England Hotel, Windermere, has more memorials than any other church in Cumbria including the Cathedral (Carlisle). Overall, this is a poignant testimony to the bravery, self-sacrifice and determination of the people of Windermere and Grasmere during the Great War, who sought to find normality in a reality so far removed from anything they had ever known.